Pret opened in London in 1986.  College friends, Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe, made proper sandwiches using natural, preservative free ingredients.  The two of them had woefully little experience in the world of business.  They created the sort of food they craved but couldn’t find it anywhere else.  Pret is a private company and after 23 years, founders Julian and Sinclair are still significant shareholders. Julian works in the business nearly everyday! The majority stake of the company has recently been acquired by European equity firm Bridgepoint.

Because Pret is private we do not face the same pressure to grow as a public company does.  We will develop slowly, one shop at a time. There are about 200 Pret shops around the world at the moment. Most of them are in the UK.  We turn over roughly 200 million pounds a year and would like to make 9% profit but haven’t yet.  One day we will.

Many people struggle to pronounce our name!  Pret a Manger is French and means ‘ready to eat’.